15th Dec 2003, 11:20

...probably because Buicks don't appeal to anybody under the age of 70. I drove a very noisy and annoying 2003 Century as a rental car for a week, and I wore dark sunglasses the whole time so that no one would recognize me.

27th Jul 2004, 11:37

And Avalons don't appeal to anyone under 60.

26th Jun 2006, 20:24

Hmm Buicks. I advise you to check out Buick LeSabre reviews for the year 2000. Nice window problems.

19th Dec 2006, 17:53

I would rather have to replace the window regulator like in my Bonneville (only happened once) than replace the whole entire engine like in my GRANDMOTHER'S Avalon. She is 67, just like one other person I know who has one with the same problem.

25th Aug 2014, 13:13

Did your grandmother fail to replace the timing belt? That is a maintenance requirement, and if left undone, yes you will damage the engine. These cars literally have bulletproof reliability.

26th Aug 2014, 11:45

I would wear dark sunglasses as well in a 1970 Buick GS 455 Big Block with the convertible version. Same frame shared on the GTO, 442 etc. A fantastic Buick that appealed to me at only 25 years old.

30th Aug 2017, 02:51

How many miles were on the Avalon when the engine went? More than likely the timing belt, which is a scheduled maintenance item, was never changed.

30th Aug 2017, 15:33

Could have been the oil sludging problem that Toyotas were known to have.

30th Aug 2017, 21:53

Pretty sure the engines used in this era of Avalon didn't sludge. That was more for vehicles like the Sienna Minivan. My brother had a '98 Avalon of which he took pretty bad care of it and rarely changed the oil. Yet he put over 300,000 miles on it and the only thing we ever did was change the timing belt. BTW, the engine is a non-interference engine, thus a snapped belt wouldn't do anything other than cause the engine to just stop running, but it wouldn't damage anything.

31st Aug 2017, 13:54

The engines used in the Sienna were also used in other models. The sludge problem started on late 90s-mid 2000s. We had a 2003 Matrix based Pontiac Vibe fail under 50k. I replaced it with a used engine; after that the family member sold it.